Gaming system having a plurality of gaming machines linked by network and control method thereof

1. A gaming system comprising: a plurality of gaming machines each including a controller; a control device including a memory device and a processor; a network enabling communication between said plurality of gaming machines and said control device; wherein said memory device is capable of storing a plurality of types of winning-machine determination programs for determining the gaming machine to which payout of a game medium is conducted, out of said plurality of gaming machines, said winning-machine determination programs respectively determining the gaming machine by methods different from each other, said controller is programmed to execute processing of (a) accepting a bet of a game medium, and (b) transmitting number-of-game-media information indicative of a number of betted game media as the bet accepted in said processing (a) to said control device, said processor is programmed to execute processing of (A) cumulatively counting a part of the number of betted game media as a cumulative value based on said number-of-game-media information received from said gaming machine, and (B) counting a number of the gaming machines joining the game among the gaming machines connected by said network, when said cumulative value has reached a predetermined value, (C) determining the gaming machine to which the payout of the game medium is conducted, by reading the winning-machine determination program of the type specified based on the number of the gaming machines counted in said processing (B) from said memory device and executing the winning-machine determination program, and (D) paying out a predetermined number of game media to the gaming machine determined in said processing (C).

2. The gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein said plurality of types of the winning-machine determination program includes a special winning-machine determination program for determining the gaming machine to which the payout of the game medium is conducted, based on said number-of-game-media information, and said processing (C) includes processing of determining the gaming machine to which the payout of the game medium is conducted, based on said number-of-game-media information transmitted in said processing (b), by reading said special winning-machine determination program from said memory device and executing said special winning-machine determination program, when the number of gaming machines counted in said processing (B) satisfies a predetermined condition.

3. The gaming system according to claim 2 , wherein said special winning-machine determination program includes a particular program for determining the gaming machine as a transmission source of the number-of-game-media information having triggered said cumulative value to reach the predetermined value in the count as the gaming machine to which the payout of the game medium is conducted, and said processing (C) includes processing of determining the gaming machine as a transmission source of the number-of-game-media information having triggered said cumulative value to reach the predetermined value in the count among the counts in said processing (A), by reading said particular program from said memory device and executing said particular program, when the number of the gaming machines counted in said processing (B) satisfies a specific condition.

4. A game control method comprising steps of: (a) accepting a bet of a game medium in a gaming machine, (b) transmitting number-of-game-media information indicative of a number of betted game media as the bet accepted in said step (a) to a control device from said gaming machine, (A) cumulatively counting in said control device a part of the number of betted game media as a cumulative value based on said number-of-game-media information received from said gaming machine, and (B) counting in said control device a number of the gaming machines joining the game among the gaming machines connected by a network enabling communication between a plurality of said gaming machines and said control device, when said cumulative value has reached a predetermined value, (C) determining in said control device the gaming machine to which payout of the game medium is conducted, by reading a winning-machine determination program of a type specified based on the number of the gaming machines counted in said step (B) out of a plurality of types of the winning-machine determination programs for determining the gaming machines, to which the payout of the game medium is conducted, out of the plurality of said gaming machines from the memory device and executing the winning-machine determination program, and (D) paying out a predetermined number of game media to the gaming machine determined in said step (C).